HotPads Daily :: The Official Blog of HotPads.com

Most Ridiculous Coffee Gadget Ever

Our addiction to coffee is well-documented, and it has not gotten any better since we moved into our new office.  (We should have known that having a Starbucks in the lobby would be just as bad as having an intravenous drip installed.)

But we have to draw the line somewhere.  And that line is drawn where the Heart Beans coffee grinder begins.  This contraption, held like a baby next to your chest, grinds coffee beans to the tune of your ticker.  Luckily it's just a concept, or Doug Lewis might actually buy one.

In the meantime, we'll let the Pike's Place boys provide the fuel for the best apartment search on the web.

Thanks, Gizmodo.

Profiles in Courage: The Drought of 2008

We've taken so many things for granted here at HotPads, nonchalantly listing hundreds of thousands of homes for sale on our innovative map-based search.  That was until now, when a disruption in our bottled water delivery service threatened the once free-flowing supply of coffee that fuels HotPads.com.

As a result, members of the HotPads staff have resorted to the most extreme measures to stay awake and keep the site running.  A few have taken to making coffee with Washington DC's notorious lead-based water.  Others routinely make the grueling two-block walk to Java House.

There have even been reports of people drinking Dr. Pepper, but such fanciful accounts must be dismissed out of hand.

Due to the lack of press coverage (what other reason could there be?) there's been no outpouring of support from the government, NGO's or Oprah.  In the meantime, we'll keep up a brave front and keep bringing America the real estate listings it deserves.

HotPads Launches For Sale Listings

HotPads.com went live two years ago this past Saturday.  To celebrate, we wanted to do something big.  So, today we launched into the For Sale market.  We are launching with over 200,000 real estate listings from our current real estate professional partners.

Over the past two years we have helped countless rental housing shoppers find their next home.  We are excited to now do the same thing for those that are looking to purchase a new home.

Just like rental housing, HotPads' For Sale listings are completely free and anyone can create them.  For those users with a lot of listings, you can have your webmaster create a listing data feed following these instructions:  Listing Data Feed Instructions . Or you could just send us an email at info@hotpads.com .

More information about HotPads launch into the For Sale market can be found in our press release .

I hope everyone has a chance to check out our For Sale listings.  Here are a few quick links to some of the largest markets:

New York City, Washington DC, San Francisco, San Jose, Phoenix, Chicago, Detroit, Miami, Seattle, and Dallas

Internet Software Engineers Needed!

We are looking to bring on a few more engineers...but we are having trouble finding candidates!  If you are a computer engineer...or you know someone that is, and are interested in learning more about HotPads please let us know!

Here is a short job posting:

We're looking for people who understand the fundamentals of the Internet and Java, and who want to quickly become experts in both. We work on many small projects at a time and release new features frequently. Immediately, you'll start working with experienced developers and contribute to features that might be released days later.

If you're interested in mastering many or all of these technologies, HotPads is a great place to do it:

Linux, Java, DNS, MySQL, Hibernate, Tomcat and Resin, Spring, Spring MVC, Lucene, Amazon's S3 and EC2, ArcGIS, JavaScript, DWR and Google Web Toolkit, HTML, CSS, XML, Flash, Flex and AJAX technologies

We work hard but have a lot of fun.  If you are interested, please email Matt Corgan at mcorgan@hotpads.com . We look forward to hearing from you!

Don't we look friendly?  (Except Doug Lewis in the middle...)

Trulia Raises $10 Million

Trulia announced yesterday that they closed a $10 million Series C round with Sequoia Capital (one of the most well respected VC firms).

I have added this to the Real Estate Technology Timeline.  You can see many of the venture capital deals in the online real estate search space by typing "venture" in the filter box on the bottom (also they all have green buttons rather than blue).

Some of the companies that have brought in venture capital in the last few years are:

Oodle: ~$16 million
Trulia: ~$18 million
Zillow: ~$57 million
MyNewPlace: ~$20 million
Redfin: ~$9.25 million
HotPads: ~$2.3 million

It is really interesting to watch all of the activity in the real estate search space.

If anyone has any additions or corrections to these numbers or anything on the timeline, please email us at timeline@hotpads.com .  (Congratulations to the Trulia team!)

HotPads in the Wall Street Journal

HotPads was in the Wall Street Journal today.  We thought about playing it cool, you know, no big deal.  But who are we trying to kid, this is pretty exciting for us.  If you care to read the article, here is a link (subscription req'd): link.

Team HotPads Photo OP

We welcomed a new member of the team last week, David Peters.  We held a welcome BBQ and ate lots of spicy sausages.  Below is the only picture of the current team here at HotPads, so I thought I would post it.  The BBQ was hosted by Doug Lewis...at an Archstone Smith property in fact (nice BBQ area!). 

Dora kind of looks like she is stuffed...but she isn't.  (Tim too...)

Matt told me he is opposed to me posting my Paint Art below...

High Pressure Home Shopping

Have you ever been released from a secret Chinese torture prison only to be given over to nuclear bomb wielding terrorists...having to escape said terrorists by biting the jugular of one of your captors?  And then learn that both your brother and father were involved in the assisination of the President a few years ago and are currently involved with the nuclear terrorism of your previous captors....and you didn't learn this by word of mouth or the newspaper, but by almost suffocating your brother to death with a plastic bag?

And then, in the middle of all of this, did you try to find an apartment in L.A. that is a bit cheaper and at a safe distance from a nuclear blast zone? 

Yes?  Then you are HotPads' newest celebrity user, Jack Bauer.  The membership email below was bounced back to HotPads on Friday.  I always thought CTU would have a .gov or .mil address.

More action this evening...9/8c on Fox.

Oodle Raises an additional $11 million

Oodle just announced that it raised a tidy sum ($11 million) from JAFCO Ventures, Greylock Partners, and RedPoint Ventures.

I just put this on the Real Estate Technology Timeline.  Remember to email timeline@hotpads.com if you have any updates.  You can find both technology and business developments on the timeline...so be sure to check it out!  (just a reminder...)

"I'm blogging right now, take a message."

Oh when did I start to identify with humor like this?  Between InmanNews reporting that I was the "chief bloggernaut" here at HotPads, ending every conversation with "I'm definitely gonna blog this," and laughing hysterically at this video, I'm beginning to worry about myself.  Anyway, watch this video from Sellsius.

I wasn't always like this, I swear